Ministry of higher education, science and innovation of the republic of uzbekistan national university of uzbekistan

1.2 Poems in English language and their specific features 
The basic dimensions of English versification and its laws are still a matter 
of dispute. There are many theories about the nature of English verse, about its 
features, about the main dimensions of English verse. Some English linguists, such 
as Henry Sweet, argue that it is impossible to determine the nature of the metrical 
structure of English verse. English versification, like all other versification, arose 
from song. A verse stands out as an independent poetic system only when it breaks 
away from the musical accompaniment in the song. What lies at the heart of 
music—rhythm—is also the leading feature in verse, but this rhythm undergoes a 
significant transformation when the unit of measurement has become not only 
temporal, but also qualitative. Rhythm in music is based on the alternation of 
segments that are commensurate in time. Verse (English) is based on the 
alternation of units qualitatively different in character - stressed and unstressed 
syllables. In other words, in music the rhythm is quantitative, in English verse the 

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rhythm is qualitative. English versification, therefore, is called quality 
versification
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.
But the nature of the English language, its phonetic laws do not fit into the 
requirements of a regular alternation of qualitatively different units. After all, 
regular alternation would require such an organization of the verse in which every 
stressed syllable would be followed by an unstressed syllable, and each unstressed 
syllable would be followed by a stressed one, or each stressed syllable would be 
followed by two unstressed ones, or every two unstressed syllables would be 
followed by one stressed syllable, etc.
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Such a regular alternation is possible only in an ideal scheme, which is 
called the meter or the metrical organization of the verse. 
The ideal metric grid, under the influence of the phonetic laws of the 
language, begins to change, deform, and deviate from this scheme. And yet, in 
English versification, one can trace such ordered forms of verse that approach the 
ideal metrical scheme. In English versification, the following five main meters are 
distinguished: 

iambic meter: 

choreic meter; 

dactylic meter; 

amphibrachic meter; 

anapestic meter. 
The first two meters are two-syllable meters, the last three meters are three-
syllable meters of English verse
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. 
Iamb (
ᴗ–,
where “–” denotes a long syllable and “ᴗ” denotes a short 
syllable):
I looked upon the rotting sea.
And drew my eyes away. 
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Chorey (
–ᴗ
): Would you ask me whence these stories 
Whence these legends and traditions. 
Dactyl (
–ᴗᴗ
): 
Cannon to right of them
 
Iamb (
ᴗ–)
: I looked upon the rotting sea.
And drew my eyes away. 
Chorey (
–ᴗ
): Would you ask me whence these stories 
Whence these legends and traditions. 
Dactyl (
–ᴗᴗ)
: Cannon to right of them 
Cannon to left of them. 
Amphibrachius (
ᴗ–ᴗ
): O talk not to me of a name great in story